A bit earlier, I met with Kormir in the Domain of Fear. I wasn’t happy to see her, but she surprised us with some good news. Scouts were sent out to find an ancient artifact from when the gods fought Abaddon. Unfortunately, we were stuck escorting Kormir to the Gate of Secrets for the next part of her plan.

Afterwards, Rajas and I set out for a full exploration of the area without having to worry about the spearmarshal’s wellbeing. I know that Kormir is blind, but can’t she sing us a motivational song every now and then? With all of the massive tendrils and the occasional small torment claw that pops up, I could really use some encouragement.

We left from the Gate of Fear but looking back on the outpost, I don’t even recognize it anymore. I don’t remember being in that red pit at any point.

The terrain changes quite often in the Domain of Fear. While exploring our starting area with the large tendrils, we soon came across this disgusting swamp with lots of big webs. With that little hint, it didn’t surprise us to find ourselves in battle with terrorweb dryders. The nearby Forgotten Warden asked us to continue killing Dhuum’s dryders. I didn’t need any convincing to keep doing it, but he promised it would make me a better “lightbringer”.

I noticed that the long slug-like parts of the environment have a mouth (or perhaps an “exit”). I’m not sure what goes in or out of it.

I looked back on the swamp before continuing the exploration. It reminds me of a demonic version of Lahtenda Bog.

The road ahead was much easier to walk on. Nice soft sand, which for a time kept sticking to the swamp muck on my boots. I found the experience somewhat amusing, however Rajas was quite upset that it ruined his expensive Kurzick robes.

What a strange sight! The soft sand transitions into an almost fleshy area with teeth. There is even a small toothy passage leading deep down. We had no idea where it ends, but I didn’t want to find out either.

Our landscape changed yet again as we moved on. There are tentacles, waterfalls and a strange insect’s head on top of a mountain.

This tendril path led us back to our starting point. In this area, there is a tower of insect heads and other bits. It looks like someone took the head off a bunch of insects and just stacked them on one another like some sort of creepy, stitched together bug totem pole.

The last part of our exploration took us to a location I was asked to check out. Imperial Captain Shi Wang and the commander’s I freed recently informed me that the fortune teller who poisoned Shiro Tagachi’s mind was here. It seems that, just like with Vizier Khilbron, Abaddon was able to corrupt them. No one knows how willing they were to help the god of secrets though. Shiro’s actions have always puzzled me. He suddenly just “snapped” and killed Emperor Angsiyan. If it doesn’t take much to influence mortals, I am surprised that Abaddon doesn’t have more power over us. Couldn’t he just corrupt any lord or ruler?

With a small group of torment creatures, the fortune teller fought us for a brief moment in her human form before reverting to her original demonic self. It felt strange to be responsible for the death of a being that corrupted Shiro and caused so much misery and death in Cantha. I can’t wait to tell Emperor Kisu about my accomplishment!

Before heading off to the Gate of Secrets, Rajas and I looked back at the area where we fought the fortune teller. I noticed the screaming faces frozen in time during the fight, but didn’t have a chance to take a good look. Why are they here? I know that it is silly to try and make sense of Abaddon’s world, but there must be some reason for their placement. My thoughts were interrupted by Raja’s nagging about how I ruined his robes. I offered to go to the nearest outpost and help him clean the swamp muck out just to shut him up!